Ukulele Tonya

Ukulele chords and arrangements for Christmas songs (http://group.pinecreekbay.com/?page_id=13) by the Grand Rapids Organization of Ukulele Players (scroll down a bit). Who wouldn’t like “The Chipmunk Song” played under their Christmas tree on an ukulele this year??? Only a Scrooge would decline a serenade session like that!

My intentions are always good.

As Thanksgiving draws near every November, I vow that I’ll finish the family Christmas newsletter before the after-Christmas sales have begun. I promise myself I’ll have all the gifts chosen and beautifully wrapped (that means there’s a bow on each one) before Christmas Eve. And I pledge that this year I’ll have practiced a handful of Christmas songs ahead of time so I can confidently join in the holiday festivities with my ukulele at my side.

I can’t help you much with your own newsletter and Christmas shopping, but if you, too, happily anticipate combining Christmas festivities with your favorite little four-stringed instrument, I have some advice for you: Start now to get your fingers in shape for the holiday fun. That way you’ll be comfortable with a variety of ukulele-played tunes by the time the sterile holiday Muzak is filling the malls!

While there are some great “for purchase” ukulele Christmas books out there, the links here will also definitely help you get into the holiday spirit with a variety of songs for ukulele. Consider it an early Christmas stocking stuffer just for you—’cause these are all free! If you have your own favorite ukulele Christmas song collection links to share, add your comment below. (Read on …)

Back in 2003, the good folks at Ukulele Hall of Fame decided to create the Fleabag Music songbook, described as “Songs for Uke Gatherings.” It was a labor of love, featuring 10 classic tunes often played on an ukulele—ranging from Hawaiian to Tin Pan Alley and folk.

The idea was to have one simple book (with standard music notation as well as chord charts) so ukulele strummers could be “on the same page” in playing some well-known (and all public domain) tunes.

While most of us know many of the songs, there are some of these old tunes that, ahem, some of us (did you see me raising my hand?) may have heard of but don’t really “know.” That’s where Bruce Evans and his wife, Karol, come in to the picture. The two of them paired up for some delightful strumming and singing to create a collection of MP3s of the 10 songs. That way, those of us who don’t know the songs well don’t have to fudge the melody anymore—we have something to listen to that will set us straight!

In the photos, that’s Karol sharing a hula at the 2005 Midwest Uke Fest (and yours truly is just behind her) and Bruce teaching a strumming class at the same ukulele festival in Indianapolis (boy, that was a great event!).

The MP3s were posted on the Internet for a while, but have been “down” and unavailable evidently for a bit of time. I’m happy to give them a home here, with the permission of Bruce, who points out, “Like everything else from that project, they belong to the ukulele community, not to me. Please share them with everybody.”

Enjoy some old-time fun—the MP3s (and the songbook) are below:

• Fleabag Song Collection (a zipped file containing MP3 files)
• Fleabag Songbook (a PDF)

When you head to a jam session, is your collection of “must-have” music sheets heavier than your ukulele?

That’s what it’s like for me. Wait—let’s change that: That’s what it was like for me before I spent some serious time with Jim D’Ville’s DVD, “Play Ukulele by Ear (click the link here for buying details).”

Jim, a gifted teacher and an ukulele player with some seriously awesome chops, created this DVD based on his popular workshops around the Portland and Pacific Northwest. Jim is also the co-author of the book/CD combo: “The Natural Way to Music.”

“Stop learning songs the old-fashioned way, one at a time,” reads the promo for the DVD. “Let Jim DVille teach you all the songs in advance by training your ears to tune by ear, hear chords, chord progressions, musical intervals and melodies.”

Uh oh; it sounds suspiciously like it’s dancing cheek to cheek with (close your eyes, it’s that ever-dreaded trepidation-filled topic of many ukulele players)—music theory.

You can open your peepers now. It’s not so scary—not the way Jim approaches it at least. In this DVD lesson package, he introduces you very gently to music theory, and he achieves it without sheets of paper scored with music notation and all those arcane sounding musical terms (well, except for a brief mention of C6 and why it is what it is—but then he drops that subject really quickly when he notices that eyes are glazing over). (Read on …)